Tom King’s CRM Plus --
Ruminations on "cultural resource management," environmental impact assessment, and related esoteric topics, by a curmudgeon who seldom has anything good to say about anything.

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Saturday, February 01, 2014

"Looters or Lovers?"

Today I posted an ancient, unfinished paper on Academia.edu, and have been surprised at how much attention it's getting, in the U.S., the U.K., Peru, and elsewhere. Here's the 2014 preface I stuck on it to explain:

LOOTERS OR LOVERS:
STUDYING THE NON-ARCHAEOLOGICAL USE OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES

2014 Preface

In 1989-90, I was engaged as a subcontractor to CEHP
Inc., a Washington DC-based consulting firm specializing in environmental and
historic preservation work, on a project for the Society for American
Archaeology (SAA).The SAA was engaged
in an initiative aimed at gaining an improved understanding of “archaeological
looting.”With funding from the National
Park Service (NPS), the SAA engaged CEHP to look into the definition of studies
that might be funded to advance the purposes of this initiative.CEHP asked me to summarize studies already
performed and develop recommendations.I
produced a draft report, which I submitted to CEHP, and CEHP submitted to the
SAA, in January 1991.

The report was apparently not what the SAA, or perhaps NPS,
expected, and the project fizzled to a halt.The manuscript has languished in my attic ever since, in the form of a
single hard copy.I recently engaged Ms.
Kelly Merrifield to re-type it; I am grateful for Kelly’s skillful
assistance.

The report is incomplete, notably in that it lacks a
bibliography.Somewhere in my attic, I
think I have a box containing the sources used in the report’s construction,
but this has not yet come to light.The
report is also, of course, now almost a quarter-century out of date.Still, though, I think it contains some
useful data – notably summaries of some very obscure gray literature – and that
some of its observations and never acted-upon recommendations still merit
consideration, with allowance for subsequent developments.So, for whatever interest it may have, I am
taking this opportunity to share it.

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Welcome to Tom King's CRM Plus

Welcome to my blog on topics related to "cultural resource management," whatever that may mean to you or me. I hope you find some interest in what you read here, that you'll add your own contributions, and that you'll encourage others to have a look. Thanks!

About Me

Thomas F. King holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of California Riverside (1976), and has worked since the 1960s in the evolving fields of research and management variously referred to as heritage, cultural resource management, and historic preservation. He is particularly known for his work with Section 106 of the U.S. National Historic Preservation Act, and with indigenous and other traditional cultural places.

King is the author and editor of ten textbooks and tradebooks (See http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-F.-King/e/B001IU2RWK/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1353864454&sr=1-2-ent) as well as scores of journal articles, popular articles, and internet offerings on heritage topics.His career includes the conduct of archaeological research in California and the Micronesian islands, management of academy-based and private cultural resource consulting organizations, helping establish government historic preservation systems in the freely associated states of Micronesia, oversight of U.S. government project review for the federal government’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, service as a litigant and expert witness in heritage-related lawsuits, and extensive work as a consultant and educator in heritage-related topics. He is the co-author of the U.S. National Park Service's government-wide guidance on "traditional cultural properties" (TCPs; see http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/pdfs/nrb38.pdf). He occasionally teaches short classes about historic preservation project review, traditional cultural places, and consultation with indigenous groups, and consults and writes as TFKing PhD LLC. Current major clients include several American Indian tribes and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.